VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a mobile phone-based navigation service which guides older users to the right address, even when lost in a strange town. The result of a European project, the service helps older people to use public transport, assisting them along the entire route.

Scientists have been exploring new ways to "smell" signs of cancer by analyzing what’s in patients’ breath. In ACS’ journal Nano Letters, one team now reports new progress toward this goal. The researchers have developed a small array of flexible sensors, which accurately detect compounds in breath samples that are specific to ovarian cancer. Diagnosing cancer today usually involves various imaging techniques, examining tissue samples under a microscope, or testing cells for proteins or genetic material.

Reverberated sound can make objects visible. The sonar is used in the shipping industry to acquire information about the seabed or shoals of fish, while gynaecologists use ultrasound images to study foetuses in the womb. Material testing procedures that regularly check for fissures in rail tracks or aircraft support structures are also based on ultrasound.

Scientists have discovered how genetic cancer mutations systematically attack the networks controlling human cells, knowledge critical for the future development of personalized precision cancer treatments. Since the human genome was decoded more than a decade ago, cancer genomics studies have dominated life science worldwide and have been extremely successful at identifying mutations in individual patients and tumors.

They're the latest rage in jewelry and gadgetry, but like all computer devices, smart watches are vulnerable to hackers, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Using a homegrown app on a smart watch, the researchers were able to guess what a user was typing through data "leaks" produced by the motion sensors on smart watches.

Research published in the British Dental Journal shows that Brush DJ, an app designed to encourage youngsters to adopt and maintain an effective oral health care routine using evidence-based techniques, is effective in its aims. Brush DJ was launched on the Apple App Store at the end of 2011 and in 2013 it was accepted into the NHS Choices Health Apps Library.

When physicians prepare for patient visits, one of their first steps is to review clinic notes or health records that recap their patients' medical history. Since the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, approximately 78 percent of office-based physicians in the United States have adopted electronic health records (EHR).